AVerMedia Live Gamer HD - Capture & Share Your PC Game Footages C985 PCI-Express x1 Interface

Pros: The card records GREAT and does what it says. Use it to record some shows so I can play them back for a love one later. (I delete them afterwards so it is only for private view pure the User Agreements of public broadcast.)

Cons: None for THIS device but read other thoughts

Other Thoughts: The model before this one offered RCA recording + upvert to 720P which is GREAT! I was disappointed to see they removed that from the new model. Though the add of a big red button is nice... and draws attention from visiting guest ~~

Overall the device works great but the lost of a costly converter is why I gave it 4 stars. Almost makes me want to return it and get the less pricy/older one.

Pros: It saves in mp4. It's nice seeing as that is becoming the universal format for most all devices. I can reply on my Note 2 phone, psp, ps3, 360, zune, and even though you will never see me with one, I would guess that it works on most apple stuff to.

Cons: Little bit of lag on recording during game play if you're recording on same device but it doesn't slow down the game. Tested with a i7 3.4 and evga 660.

Other Thoughts: The recording software is super easy even in pro mode. Offers very little as far as video editing though.

Pros: This Does EXACTLY what it is supposed to do. Captures compressed high resolution video from an HDMI source with stereo audio to an MP4 format. I was able to use the audio signal on the HDMI cable. No Need for the 1/8th Audio input. Able to be run in the host computer or in a separate computer. Large Red Button Start/Stop is very useful. Comes with required wiring and the packaging is stunning. Very good solution when compared to FRAPPS because there is no load and no impact on the host system. The output videos are quite literally 25x Smaller than FRAPPS (3.5 GB/25 Minutes on Maximum Quality). Very good output and can be directly uploaded to Youtube in MP4. The Software is stable and easy to use.

Cons: Minor Points -

Noticed some minor loss in signal quality when used in the "Through Card" configuration. IE. Video Source into the capture and then Out of the Capture to the monitor. My solution was to set the Video Card to "Clone Display" Both the monitor and the capture card received their own signal direct from the two DVI ports on the video card.

If recording very long sessions (30 Min or more) the audio progressively goes out of Sync, no more than 0.5 seconds out but is becomes more noticeable after 45 minutes. I am using this to record PC Gaming (BF3) and the solution was simply to stop and start the recording after 20 minutes when I was in the Spawn Screen.

Other Thoughts: A Note for USB Headphone users I am using Logitech G35 headphones and I required to buy a sound card emulator (e2esoft virtual sound card). The emulator was only $29.00 and splits the audio into 2 signals with software. One is set to the USB and the other is set to the HDMI output. This isn't really a PRO or CON in my opinion, but I feel that it should be documented. When using USB headphones and a sound card emulator, the video and audio are recorded without the Teamspeak 3 voice chatter. Fantastic to get the footage with clear game audio and no talking.

Pros: What it promises to do is awesome, and if the card isn't faulty/your system runs it fine, you'll probably love it.

Cons: First card that arrived was completely defective - wouldn't detect in my system. RMA'd it, waiting an extra few weeks (although not actually slow on Newegg's part), only to recieve a card that was again faulty. Technical support suggested removing all drivers and software from my system, reinstalling, and testing again. After that didn't work, I was told I should get a replacement. They didn't further inquire, nor do they have a technical support phone number. Very frustrating. Currently RMA'ing for a refund.

Other Thoughts: If your system can handle another type of capturing hardware/software that doesn't have the added benefit of it's own processing power, my strong suggestion is to buy/use something else.

Pros: When you use RECentral to record and Live Stream you see no performance loss at all which is amazing on PC! When it comes to using this on Xsplit to Live Stream it has very minimal loss in performance. This does the job well!

Cons: There seems to be something wrong with the color management when I use this which makes it annoying. When I plug my audio jack into the LGHD I have hissing noise as well which gets annoying.

Other Thoughts: When I upgrade to a 120hz monitor I wonder if there will be any trouble?

Pros: Plug and Play
Software is flawless and glitch free
great video quality
small file size
easy microphone synchronization

Cons: i have not encountered any yet.

Other Thoughts: this cap card is great. I can easily record live commentaries using the built in microphone synchronization function. the card captures in fairly small file sizes to keep rendering speeds quick. This is the only capture card i will ever want to use. it is flawless. it also works great with xsplit.

If you are encountering any software problems make sure to download the latest drivers.

Pros: -Does what it says, records up to 1920x1080p @ 30fps, and with less than 1% cpu utilization.
-Extremely high quality compression in HARDWARE to H.264!
-Configurability or simplicity in options setup (make sure you update to latest firmware and then confirm it took in the software about panel)
-Simple start stop of recording with visual feedback from the usb device that it is working.
-Supports live streaming, although other reviewers point out its minor limitations there-in.

Cons: -Does not support common resolution of 1920x1200, forces video down to lower resolution if captured from a separate PC via pass through. If setup for screen cloning output (second monitor clones primary display then pass this out to the capture card) it forces shared screen resolution down to 1920x1080 for same PC capture.
-No included software to video edit recordings.

Other Thoughts: In practical application I have recorded hi end grainy video from source material such as Hawken (currently in open beta) then transcoded it to divx for archiving. With other high quality source materials this will nearly always save a large chunk of drive space. NOT SO with this cards high quality encodings! Kudos! re-coding tends to nearly double file size going to divx avi, so stick to the original H264.

-Avermedia does not seem interested in coming up with a way to get 1920x1200 onto this card. Why CAN'T it be so??? I suggested that even if it is a bandwidth issue simply scan at a lower frame rate, say 1920x1200 @ 20fps.

-I have suggested to Avermedia to update their software package to support input of a video file, fast pass it through the hardware video encoder feature of this card to allow it to create archive quality videos that you have make in the more efficient H264. I mean take advantage of the cards abilities! This would let users change bitrate/frame sizes for archiving. Unfortunately so far, no feature like this is implemented... :(

Pros: Great HDMI capture card. If you want to make use of the hardware encoding with xsplit you need to buy a second capture card. You can just buy the Game Broadcaster as your second one.

Cons: Tried to do firmware upgrade following their instructions. Bricked card. Sent RMA for new card.

Pros: The card comes with a 'button', USB based actual button. With the current software and firmware upgrade it functions to turn the program on, and record and stop recording. This is fantastic if your already in game and want to capture some film but have not turned the recorder on, just push the button once to start the program and again to record. Recordings are clear and look JUST like the game looks when playing, Easy upload to youtube in full 1080p HD. Easy to install. Works in both PCIx1 or PCIx16(graphic card slot). Not much set-up required;newbie, to advanced mode set up modes do the same thing; newbie helps you to decide settings, advanced assumes your informed. Comes complete with all the cables you will need. No FPS hit at all in game. It is a pleasure to record without having to tweek each game specifically for the software as you would do with software recorders which utilize your GPU. CPU usage and memory usage is low and does not affect system performance at all. It was well worth the money for the card. I no longer want tot cry when I think about recording a game. It will capture whatever you are doing, so you can use it to make tutorial videos as well. Microphone recording works easily with teamspeak 3.

Cons: Aver Media has NO PHONE SUPPORT. All you can do is open a support ticket (which they did answer in 24 hours), and then contact them at their skype tech support and hope for a skype call from them. Forums are active, they do reply there but not real fast. Drivers are NOT digitally signed which creates problems with Windows 7 64bit. In order to run the card and the software I have to put my Windows in 'test mode' by turning off driver signing with the command prompt in DOS. Not really a problem, just annoying. Would really like to see signed drivers come out. Set up with my Asus ROG Thunderbolt audio card was problematic at best. The unsigned drivers caused code 52 errors on the audio card drivers as well, and the cards initially were not compatible until I did a BIOS update on the motherboard and a firmware update on the Aver Media card. Pass through audio through the card is poor quality. I purchased a 3.5mm stero jack splitter and split the audio off my audio card to the capture card. Worked like a charm. Also, if you run your video from your graphic card through the capture card you get a re-coding of the RGB (red, green, blue) which results in grainy and glowy red text and overall darkening of colors. You can avoid this with a double HDMI out graphic card and avoid receiving the video through the capture card or if you only have one HDMI out, purchase an HDMI splitter.; problem solved.

Other Thoughts: The box it comes in is awesome! :) The button has lights! It flashes when recording. I initially thought this would be annoying, but it is a nice slow paced flash, just enough to let you know it is recording. It will flash rapidly if your drive space is getting low.

Pros: Worked for a week.

Cons: HD Audio and and Picture loss after one week of 4 hours of actual use. Capture card showed signs of latency before this as well.